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Lucrezia Nearwright
Human female, born LY 860, in Tanq. Magistrate of the High Court (905-912). Senior member of The Cabal (905-912). Lucrezia (pronounced lo͞o'krĕt·zēə) comes from a family of shipwrights. She could trace her lineage back to Ship, and her ancestors were among the founders of Shipsister in 370. Ten years later, Tanq was founded, but Lucrezia's ancestors remained in Shipsister. It wasn't until 400 that some of them moved to Tanq, having had their business increasingly targeted over the last thirty years by a local gang called the Cosa Nostra. It was in 392 that one of Lucrezia's ancestors, a spirit-talker named Tobin, first traveled to Tanq, after joining a group of other spirit-talkers from various villages who had begun spreading the idea of using the recently invented printing press to create standardized copies of the O'Gas. While in Tanq, Tobin learned that unlike Shipsister, where virtually all crime was controlled by one gang, Tanq had a number of smaller gangs (most notably the Sea Monogs and the Stags), which often fought one another, as well as having to worry about the police. On top of that, none of the gangs had ever been as serious as the Cosa Nostra. Because of all this, the various businesses of Tanq weren't nearly as troubled by gangs as were the businesses of Shipsister. When Tobin reported this to his clan, they began thinking about relocating to Tanq, and eventually entered into negotiations with Ferryfolk Lines, a shipbuilding company which had been established soon after Tanq was founded. It wasn't until eight years after Tobin's original visit to Tanq that the clan finalized its move, having sold its business in Shipsister and bought its way onto the board of directors of Ferryfolk. (Tobin himself had by that time become involved with the group of spirit-talkers that had recently been organized by Malcolm to oppose the Prophet Movement. Several years later, he would become bishop of Tanq.) All of that was, of course, ancient history by the time Lucrezia was born. Over the generations, there had always been at least one member of her clan on the board of Ferryfolk, and by Lucrezia's time, it was her aunt Haruka. Meanwhile, Lucrezia herself had little interest in the family business. At age 18, in 878, she joined the local police department. She'd always had mixed feelings about street gangs, knowing that while one had forced her family to abandon their business centuries earlier, it was the existence of others that led to their choosing their new home. (Of course, it would have been preferable to choose a village with no gangs at all, but so far as anyone knew, no such village existed, at the time.) In spite of these mixed feelings, she still wanted to do whatever she could to protect the interests of her family, and any other business people in the village. And joining the police seemed the best way to do that. In 899, Lucrezia took part in the talks in Kurok that led to the establishment of the court system, and subsequently became a lawyer. By 903, she had become a judge, and in 904, she ran in the first election for the High Court, in which she won a seat as her village's first Magistrate. She moved to First Village and was sworn into office in 905. In 901, the leader of the Sea Monogs at the time, Barrie, joined LandOrder, an inter-village gang which had first formed in 899. He had every intention of resigning soon after that, but was forced out of his position on the board of Ferryfolk by a voting block of board members who disapproved of his involvement in LandOrder. The only ally he had was Lucrezia's aunt Haruka, as the two families had been close for generations, and she knew Barrie to be a basically good young man (he was only 21 at the time). While Lucrezia understood the feelings of the other board members, she supported her aunt's decision to side with Barrie. After all, until that time, gangs had always been rites of passage for teenagers, and it was rare for anyone older than Barrie to remain in a gang. That had been changing, in the last few years, but Lucrezia respected Barrie's desire to follow old traditions, while simultaneously forgiving his decision to merge his gang with LandOrder before stepping down as leader. She considered it the folly of youth, but saw in him an increasing level of maturity. (Lucrezia and Haruka both also sympathized with him over the recent deaths of his brother and parents.) But because he now had no job, he saw no choice but to remain as leader of his branch of LandOrder. Because of Haruka's support of Barrie when the board voted him out of the company, Haruka herself was soon forced off the board of Ferryfolk. Her clan started up their own fledgling shipbuilding company after that, Nearwright Shipyard. The name was derived from the fact that they were shipwrights from Near Land. In 904, when the surname law was passed, the clan took "Nearwright" as their surname. During Lucrezia's time as a judge, one of the laws she played a part in enacting was the Business Management Regulation Act, in 903. The official reason for this law was unfair business practices that became more common after the introduction of the stock market, the previous year. However, it is widely believe that Lucrezia's support of the proposed law was largely because she felt both her aunt and Barrie had been unfairly treated two years earlier. Of course, the law came too late to help either of them, but it would later be used by various alleged gangsters to retain control of their own companies. In 911, as a Magistrate on the High Court, Lucrezia was vocally opposed to the increasing cooperation between the police and unofficial groups such as The Syndicate. The Chief of Police in Tanq at the time, Quinn Darkstrider, was in favor of granting the Syndicate official status, and integrating them to some degree into the police. Lucrezia's objections, coupled with her previous support of the BMRA, and various other actions over the years, led him to suspect she was taking bribes from gangs. In 912, he began covertly investigating her (while publicly running for the office of monarch). He eventually uncovered evidence of illegal activities, and his arrest of Lucrezia is believed to have largely contributed to his surge in popularity near the end of the election, which resulted in him becoming the new king of the Second Order. Subsequently, it was discovered that Lucrezia had in fact been part of a secret society known as The Cabal, into which she'd been recruited in 905, after attaining her position on the High Court. Category:People